Hello everyone. I'm looking for a favor. I'm writing a new story, one which I am writing completely out of my usual element. There is part of the story where my main character, a teacher, is intentionally given a food she is allergic to, slipped into her lunch by a student who hates her. The allergy is severe enough that it could hospialize her, and requires her to carry an epipen. Originally, I went with tomatoes. It was easy to bring up in the beginning of the story, to save for the moment later. However, upon doing a little research, I found that although tomato allergies are fairly common, they rarely are life threatening, if ever, and almost never go beyond difficulty breathing. Does anyone have a food allergy that they have to be careful about, that might not be obvious if put into something? Peanut allergy is not a good choice, because although it can be very deadly, the smell is quite distinct and easily detected. Thanks in advance!
tree nuts, eggs, milk? I don't know how deadly those can get, but you can easily bake them into something.
Well, the scene I'm dealing with is that she is careful to avoid the allergy, so she always brings her own lunch, and the student who hates her slips the allergy into something, either a sandwich, or maybe on some pasta dish, something she is writing for lunch. The scene goes on that puts the teacher in the hospital, with the student having not realized how deadly the allergy was, he just wanted her to swell up and get a bad rash. A case of ignorance on his part, which land A him in a lot of trouble. So it can't be something he'd male for her. It has to be slipped in.
There is more than one way to do it. Soy is also an option-See the food portion of the article. https://www.planetdeadly.com/nature/dangerous-allergies Don't think it would be all that easy to slip her bees. http://www.medicaldaily.com/food-allergy-awareness-4-most-dangerous-food-allergies-and-how-you-can-avoid-reaction-282206 The best way for the kid to pull it off, would be that he had access to her lunch without getting caught while tampering with it. Or he could stumble past her and spill a bit of the allergen by accident into her food, and she does not notice. Good luck.
Like @John Calligan said, peanut allergies can be so severe that even a hint of contact can cause a reaction. Definitely doesn't need to be enough that the person tastes or smells it. Peanuts aren't the only option there, though. I know a little girl who has that level of allergy to milk; they can't have any dairy products in her classroom and there are signs posted on the door. So, I'm thinking either a little bit of peanut butter powder or milk powder mixed in with her food could work. However, I don't know how common milk allergies that severe are. You say that tomato allergies rarely go beyond difficulty breathing, but that's true for most allergies, I believe. I wouldn't necessarily worry about how rare it is. It's feasible, and that's what's important. Difficulty breathing always has the potential to turn into not breathing, which is why that type of allergic reaction is considered a medical emergency, even if it's not likely that the person's going to die. Standard procedure is to take someone to the hospital after they've had an Epipen injection, even if the allergic reaction itself turned out to not be severe.
Celery. I had never been allergic to celery but when I was 16 I unknowingly developed an allergy to it and ended up in the ER on oxygen. I was on the phone with my BFF munching on raw celery and carrots, I broke out in hives, and my tongue and lips started to swell. We lived 12 miles from the nearest hospital, so Mom had to floor it to get me to the ER. ETA: One thing they don't tell you is, the swelling distorts your facial features. That happened right before my tongue started to swell. I felt my lips swelling, and when I looked in the mirror, my face looked weird. That's when I went to get my mom. It happened very fast...within less than 20 minutes of eating the first piece of it. ETA: So for clarity, the sequence of events went: itching, hives, lips swelling, face swelling, tongue swelling, trouble breathing. Somewhere in there early on, my eyes were watering, too.
Are you sure? That is, yes, peanuts are smelly. But I think that you can get a dangerous reaction with a very small amount. A little cold-press peanut oil (as opposed to highly refined peanut oil, which isn't officially an allergen) mixed into a food that's already stinky? Does she eat garlicky hummus, for example?
